---
title: They threw off their soft white plumage, and two lovely female forms… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: They threw off their soft white plumage, and two lovely female forms approached the pale, sick old man, and threw back their long hair, and when Helga bent over her grandfather, redness came back to his cheeks, his eyes brightened, and life returned to his benumbed limbs. Who acts: Relatives, two lo
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 5, sentence 123

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They threw off their soft white plumage, and two lovely female forms approached the pale, sick old man, and threw back their long hair, and when Helga bent over her grandfather, redness came back to his cheeks, his eyes brightened, and life returned to his benumbed limbs.

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**Who acts:** Relatives, two lovely female forms, Helga, redness, life · **What happens:** throw off, approach, throw back, bend, come back, brighten · **To what, where:** soft white plumage, pale sick old man, long hair, cheeks, eyes

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Relatives, two lovely female forms, Helga, redness), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg27200:87:123
# text = They threw off their soft white plumage, and two lovely female forms approached the pale, sick old man, and threw back their long hair, and when Helga bent over her grandfather, redness came back to his cheeks, his eyes brightened, and life returned to his benumbed limbs.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	off	off	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
5	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	plumage	plumage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
11	lovely	lovely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
12	female	female	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	forms	form	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
14	approached	approach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
16	pale	pale	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	sick	sick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	threw	throw	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
24	back	back	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
26	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
30	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	32	mark	_	_
31	Helga	Helga	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
32	bent	bend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	advcl	_	_
33	over	over	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	grandfather	grandfather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
37	redness	redness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nsubj	_	_
38	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
39	back	back	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
40	to	to	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	cheeks	cheek	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
44	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	45	nmod:poss	_	_
45	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	42	conj	_	_
46	brightened	brighten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	45	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
48	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
49	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	nsubj	_	_
50	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
51	to	to	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
52	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	54	nmod:poss	_	_
53	benumbed	benumb	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	54	amod	_	_
54	limbs	limb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **throw off** | past | Relatives *= relative* | Relatives's soft white plumage |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plumage=Theme |
| 2 | **approach** | past | two lovely female forms | the pale sick old man |  |  |  |  | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Theme |
| 3 | **throw back** | past | Relatives *= relative* *not said here* | Relatives's long hair |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hair=Theme |
| 4 | **bend** | past | Helga |  |  |  |  | over Helga's grandfather | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent over grandfather=Location |
| 5 | **come back** | past | redness |  |  | redness's cheeks and redness's eyes |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to cheek=Initial\_Location |
| 6 | **brighten** | participle |  | redness's eyes *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 7 | **return** | past | life |  |  |  |  | to redness's benumbed limbs *result* | vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to limb=Result |
| 8 | **benumb** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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